There will be quite a few cars at the track tonight, mostly Focus guys, so come on out. Should be a good night. I'll probably be the only Z there. Come support the Nissan contingent.

 

we're going out there thursday aug. 12

miata
fiero w/GTP engine
svt contour (if it's not raining)

 

I saw that. Too bad I have to go out east that day for work. Post your lap times if you get a chance, i'd like to see how everybody's doing on stock/modified Z's.
I had an SVT Contour for a couple years too. Suspension mods make those things sick in the corners.

 

we decided to postpone last thursday since it was raining over there. 2, maybe 3, of us should be going tomorrow 8/17.

 

ok make that wednesday 8/18. weather and schedules work out better.

 

a little recap of yesterday's open track at gingerman. luckily no rain. i heard the guys in the spec miata talking and they were running about 1:45 a lap on race tires so I was definitely a lot slower than they were.

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gingerman yesterday was pretty fun. 2nd lap out, i looped the car around, ending up facing the wrong way in the grass.

yeah... next time let's not brake in the middle of the turn.

and as i was sitting there in the grass... hmm, this car sure is different from the volvo. maybe i shouldn't let my sister drive this car at waterford where there are a lot of walls. lol maybe _I_ shouldn't drive this car at waterford... hmmm.

i was basically screwing around and driving without getting re-acquainted with the track again. i spun off between turns 5 and 6. it was my first spin ever so wasn't sure what to do: brake, not brake, steer, not steer. so i just sat there with the wheel straight not really braking. i heard a lot of tire squeal and saw smoke looking out of my window. finally put the clutch in when i was completely sideways but the engine must have died way before that. yup, that spin alone was worth the 60 bucks.

check out the "track specs" tab http://www.gingermanraceway.com/

another exciting moment came later in the day when i was more comfortable with the track and going into turn 9 at 3/4 throttle or so. the track drops elevation a little and on previous laps the miata felt a little loose there. on this particular lap it decided to go sideways yet another time. this time i countersteered and got back on the gas. the car regained traction but then shot towards the inside of the turn through the grass. straightened the wheel, noticed there were other tire tracks through there and was glad to know i wasn't the only one, then got back on the track and went along my merry way. too bad i didn't recover the slide and stayed on the track. that would have been awesome.

there were other miatas including a spec miata, corvettes, a boxster, two civics, bmw 330, and my friend's fiero. the fiero would have passed all the corvettes and the bimmer but they weren't letting him by. the 2 civics had coilovers, one of them was pretty fast, passed me easily, the other was still a novice driver. one miata and i were having a good chase for a couple laps but he finally let me pass.

i saw the fiero in the grass at turn 1 after i let him by on the long straight... hot shot. lol his foot slipped on the pedals while heel-toeing. luckily there was runoff before the tire barrier. and apparently the civic and bimmer also went off track so it made me feel a little better.

 

Sounds like there were quite a few cars there. That's cool. I did a CGI motorsports driving school there, so I had alot more instruction my first time there, I think that helped alot. I was running anywhere from 1:42-1:44 after a whole day out there. Did you kill your brakes? Mine were shot after about 1:40 on the track....
By the way, both feet in during a spin (brakes and clutch).

 

nope, didn't kill my brakes, but i was also easy on them. the little 1.8L doesn't have enough power to get me to extremely high speeds on the straights. stayed in 3rd gear the entire time, hit 7000 rpm / 75 mph on the straights and could have shifted but just throttled off instead. the vettes and bimmer would blow by me after exiting the turns.

i did one cgi even last year so i was familiar with the lines. i just did it in an 84 volvo wagon! so i just wanted to get the feel of the miata this time around, and the spin in the beginning showed me how easy it was to swap ends on this car. i couldn't get the volvo to come around at all. i remember braking real hard going into turn 6 last year and the rear end stepped out a little but then got back in line when i let off the brakes.

edit: oh yeah, i read that somewhere to put both feet in when you spin. but i haven't had a chance to put theory into practice until now.